For shana, just because i felt like writing this one, and you've been a great friend, and always supportive. For Darkflame, for putting up with all the crap I've forced on you. Hopefully it only gets better from her, right? For Glasstiger, we're going great so far, aren't we?
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Respect (1/1)
Once upon a timeI would have told someone not to mess with my family. What a difference six months can make. Now I'm the one attcking someone else's family just to get a match at Wrestlemania with Flair. What's so important, you might ask. Well, it's all about respect, and Flair doesn't respect me. I've been in this business just as long as he has, I've held the WWF title three times, I deserve to bve respected, by everyone, including the fans. Only I'm not getting that respect, I'm getting booed out of buildings I woulod have gotten standing ovations in six months ago. I haven't changed all that much, deep down. i'm still the same guy, a little angrier perhaps, maybe more cynical, if that's possible. I've seen a lot of things during my time here, I've done a lot of things I regret, but I've never had the respect I deserved. sure the fans loved me, the fans hated me, but to them I was just some ordinary wrestler coming out to give them a show. I have never been an ordinary wrestler, I will never be an ordinary wrestler. I am the Undertaker, I'm very much like the stereotypical undertaker, I bury the dead, only I have to kill the people I bury first, the people who don't respect me.
I'm angry all the time now, I have to stay angry at everyone, or else I'll loose it. I'll loose my drive and become just what I've fought the last eleven yaers not to be. I won't let my feelings, emotions, and conscience turn me into an ordinary person. I'm not an ordinary person and people should respevt that. they should respect the fact that I'll do what I want to just because i'm strong enough and I'm mean enough, I'll do it because I can. ther's no one who can stop me, I'm the big dog in the yard, I have been for eleven years, I'm not going to stop now, just because Flair showed up. Now I don't like Vince, but I like Flair less, the coward won't even fight me like a man. Although I wouldn't want to face me at Wrestlemania either, after all, I've never lost. It's jsut one of the reasons that I'm the big dog and thjis is my yard. And don't fool yourself into thinking I'll give this yard up without a fight. It's become my home, I'm as comfortable in the ring as I am outside of it, it really makes no difference to me. The onlt thing that matters to me is respect, and I don't seem to be getting much of that lately.
Respect, it means a lot to me. If the fans respect what I do, the injuries I've worked through, the pain I've suffered, then it makes them all worthwhile. If they don't respect me it makes me want to breal in someone's head. I know it's not quite right to take out my anger on my fellow wrestlers, but who else am i going to take it out on?
And that little punk, Maven, deserved what he got, eliminating me from the Royal Rumble, me. Some little upstart, the winner of a reality show, eliminates one of the men who's given this business so much. See, that's what I'm talking about, no respect for me, for what I do. It wasn't that long ago that Maven was just a fan, watching the shows like every other fan. Now he thinks he's a WWF superstar.if he thinksthat he's going to be the next big dog in the yard he's got another thing coming. I won't let some litle upstart take over thsi business, he's never had the disappointments, the rejections that most of the locker room have had to face. He hasn't paid his dues the way the rest of us have. He's come in here on an easy ride and has accepted. he hasn't given blood, sweat amd tears the way that some of us have and he doesn't belong.
It all comes doen to respect. Who respects this business, and who's given everything that they have to this business,not expecting to get anythinf out of it, just doing it for the love of the business. Those are people who aren't affected by what title they wear, just that they're doing what they love. I used to be like that, just doing what I love. Now, it's not enough. I need to be respected for what i do, I still love this business, but that's just not enough for me anymore. To know that people actually care about me, when I'm on camera and off, fills those empty spaces left by cynicism and age. The older I get the better I understand this business, and the more I wish I didn't. but I can't turn back time, not matter how muchi'd like to.
None of that matters though, as long as I get my match as Wrestlemania. That's all that really matters now. I have to stop looking into the past, and start planning for the future. Flair, that's my future. I have to focus on besting Flair, keeping my Wrestlmania record intact. I have to focus on beating the man I've challenged. I know I've made it personal, attacking his son and friend like that. I don't care, I'll do what I have to do to stay the big dog in the yard, I won't let the thing I have be taken away from me, not without the mother of all fights at Wrestlemania.
You see, it'a all about respect. The fans may not respect me anymore, the locker room may not respect me anymore, but I still respect me. I still respect me, and what this ring represents. and I will not have the only thing I have of any true value left be taken away. Flair will not take that away from me, because, after all, I am the big dog and this is my yard, the only thing that I have left.